Electronic amusement devices, including jukeboxes, have been available for many decades. One feature of modern jukeboxes that has carried forward from the earliest machines is the ability to browse through a selection of songs and select one for play. Although it would not be uncommon to find a jukebox able to provide a selection of one hundred or more songs, or even complete compact discs (CDs), the benefits of providing an increased number of selections is counterbalanced by a unique set of difficulties.
One set of difficulties lies in initially installing, then updating the set of songs available in the jukebox. Currently, the songs played by modern jukeboxes are stored on CDs in the jukebox. Typically, a significant amount of time, expense, and potential inadvertent mishandling of CDs (or the amusement device itself) are incurred because the CDs are initially installed manually. The time, expense, and mishandling costs are then incurred each time new CDs become available and the old CDs are exchanged out for the new CDs.
Furthermore, it is difficult to predict the artists, titles, or timing of songs that may become popular. As a result, profits may be lost until the time consuming process of obtaining and replacing the CDs is carried out. Because of the unpredictability of popularity, changing CDs manually may become a significant drain on resources.
The difficulties described about with respect to changing CDs is not the only difficulty inherent with electronic amusement devices. In electronic dart games, for example, there are usually no CDs to change, but there may be electronic music, advertisements, or other displays that need to be updated on a regular or irregular basis. These electronics amusement devices also incur the substantial time, expense, and mishandling costs associated with changing CDs in a jukebox. As an example, an electronic dart game may include a sound ROM that would have to be swapped in order to update the music or other sounds associated with the dart game, or advertisements displayed on the dart game. In addition, an operator responsible for maintaining a large number of electronic amusement devices suffers the costs described above many times over. Large operations may further require hiring additional labor, purchasing additional CDs (or updating advertisements), and coping with inadvertently broken amusement devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,302 to Martin, et al. (hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety), discloses a system for managing a plurality of computer jukeboxes. In Martin, a central station is provided from which jukeboxes may download musical recording data. The central station may also receive data, for example, usage data, transmitted by each jukebox. At present, downloading a typical compressed musical recording or song over a phone line with a MODEM at approximately 28.8 Kbps may take as long or longer than 30 minutes. Therefore, if there are many jukeboxes that retrieve songs from the central station, the phone line may be in use for extended periods of time. As a result, some jukeboxes may not be able to reach the central station in order to download songs and it may take an inordinate amount of time to update all the jukeboxes.
A need exists in the industry for an improved downloading method for songs and advertisements which updates electronic amusement devices and overcomes the disadvantages discussed above and previously experienced.